In 1998 the Kiermeet theme
was Vikings. The meeting was held both in Norway and in Denmark and 114 Kjærulfs participated during the Viking Tour from June 20 to June 24,
1998.

It all began in Copenhagen
on June 20th 1998 where 45 Kjærulfs boarded the DFDS Seaways ferry and had a
wonderful journey to Oslo. During the cruise we had a reunion party and a lovely
dinner followed by dancing in the disco through the night. In the morning
breakfast was taken while cruising through the magnificent Oslo Fjord. In Oslo
we were greeted by Norwegian Kjærulfs who took us for a city tour through Oslo.
We stopped at "Halfdan Kjerulf Plass" (Square), commemorating the
great Norwegian national composer, where his grandson, also called Halfdan, took
us through the exciting life of the composer. Later he took us to his appartment
where he has put together a small museem with Halfdan Kjerulf relics. Finally he
brought us to the cementary where Halfdan is buried and showed us the grave so
well maintained. He told us that each year on Halfdan Kjerulfs birthday
September 11th he meets with musicians at the grave and play pieces of Kjerulf
music in honour of his great grand-uncle.

Kjærulfs on City tour in Oslo, Norway

We also visited the sculpture
park Vigelandsparken, which is a unique park filled with
sculpture made by one artist,
Gustav Vigeland.

The main event in Norway was the
family dinner held in a beautiful restaurant at Holmekollen (famous ski jump
during winter Olympics 1952 in Norway). The dinner was spectacular with many
Kjærulfs dressed in national Norwegian dresses and members of the Norwegian
Opera singing tunes of Halfdan Kjerulf music. A really fantastic evening which
no participant will ever forget.

Next day we visited
the Norwegian Parliament and had a specially prepared lecture on the life and controversies
of Norwegian Prime Minister Otto Richard Kjerulf 1871-1884 who resided in
Stockholm during the personal union between Norway and Sweden and had a very
difficult time.

We also had time to
visit the museum of the famous Norwegian expressionist painter Edvard Munch
(1863-1944). We saw his famous painting "The Scream".

Viking
Ship Museum

Later we visited the
impressive Viking Museum showing uniquely preserved relics from the Viking age
in Scandinavia 800-1050 ad. Among those the Oseberg ship from 800 ad. Another
modern "Viking" ship was "Kon-Tiki", built from balsa and
used by Thor Heyerdahl in 1947 to demonstrate that indians from Peru could
spread to Islands 8,000 km away in Pacific Ocean. Finally we saw the modern
"Viking" ship "Fram" from 1892 used by Roald Amundsen in
1903-06 as the first to pass through the North-West passage close to the North
Pole.

Kon-Tiki

Then the Kjærulfs
took the ferry to Denmark and followed the classical Kjærulf trail: Vadum
visiting Anders Wulffs farm, "Fogedgaard", "Lindholm Høje"
a large Viking graveyard, Vitskøl Cloister (formerly owned by Kjærulfs),
Overlade church with Kjærulf relics. During the trip we visited Edit Toft
Nielsen (Kjærulf) and her private home with scrap books of the Kjærulf
history.

Midsummer night was
held at Æbeltoft Strand and singing traditional midsummer songs was lead by
Mogens Kierulff.

Next day we
transferred by ferry to Sealand and visited the Viking ship museum in Roskilde
near Copenhagen with demonstrations of how Viking ships were built using the
ancient methods.

The "Viking
Tour" finished by a visit to Roskilde Cathedral built from 1170 and
onwards. All Danish kings and queens are buried here since 1536 and some even
before.